It is not news that Peter Mandelson
is bent (his conduct, not his sexuality). And the thoughtful interpretation of his appointment to the US was that he would thus have quite a lot in common with the present administration.
It is not news that every major figure with whom Peter Mandelson has been associated has thought they could contain him, manage him – and the failures are significant.
It is not news that there are all sorts of people who know more about the hole we are in that I do including a writer to The Times letter column who explained that impeachment
– not used since 1806 – is still on the statute book and is within the power of the House of Commons in its corporate capacity.
It is not news that one of the great pities of this administration (I know, you have a list) is how few in the cabinet or on the front benches can speak to camera.
Including the PM.
The ability to communicate through existing media ie television and radio is key to modern politics – even if about nothing very much like one N. Farage.
I want to send Keir Starmer a book by Caroline Moorehead about Leonardo Sciascia
an early activist who documented the rise and spread of the Mafia from Sicily where he was born throughout Italy, the how and why, to terrifying power. The phrase “it can’t happen here” doesn’t apply. It is.
Told over and over again that Starmer is “not a politician” – well then, let him look the future in the face, negotiate a way out and do something for all those who voted him for him – recalling the biggest post WWII result. Forget career – what about the voters?
It is not news that twice recently I have seen Labour MPs who could communicate on television saying clearly that one of the casualties of this mess would be that everything Labour had begun to do would be forgotten.
As forgotten as abused children who are habitually forgotten because they make people uncomfortable. Child abuse whether of boys or girls is ugly. And I can tell you from all those years of listening to people talk about their lives – yes, they go on. They have jobs, relationships, children perhaps of their own – but they don’t forget. That first betrayal – whether familial or systemic – runs like a scar down the middle of much.
It is not news – at least, I hope it isn’t – that a small number of those who are abused, go on to be abusers. So, in a fascinating piece of programming in the middle of national upheaval being tied to a man with a unique business ability and very nasty personal habits, Channel 4 ran another documentary on Michael Jackson.
In a promotion for which, I heard a piece of tape in which he said “I just wanted my father to love me,,, but he beat me. He stripped me and beat me”. And because I have a nasty mind, I wondered what else …
I hope the endless recital of how this one was addicted to this drug, and that one to something else, and that one to sex and this one to money will become not news. But the convention is that through this, they have come to personal happiness, parenthood and success in their chosen direction – so that even when you get a painful first person piece about addiction to nitazenes,
which apparently make heroin and fentanyl look like child’s play – you are in danger of eyeroll.
It is not news that we are in trouble – all sorts of trouble – and if this should lead to upheaval and reconsideration of the existing political order – it will be unsettling – but it’s overdue. Nor that the base line of all this is money money money
For too long, politicians of every persuasion have hidden in the expediencies of the system. It is not news that Parliament is under threat to move out of Westminster before it falls down. If we have to undergo systemic changes to how Parliament functions at the same time – to the benefit of the electorate – so be it.
It is not news that trouble loves company and problems don’t come singly.
Annalog 